PETALING JAYA: It is one step forward, two steps back for men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia (pic) in Europe.
Just when Zii Jia looked to have regained some of his form when he made it into the quarter-finals of the All-England in Birmingham last week, it all went wrong again as a foot injury saw him suffer a frustrating second round exit in the Swiss Open.
The independent player, who was the top seed in the tournament, fell 16-21, 15-21 to India’s 2021 World championships silver medallist K. Srikanth in Basel on Thursday.
“It was a tough day at the Swiss Open court. A foot injury sustained by Zii Jia during the opening round restricted his movement in this match,” said Team LZJ via social media.
“But hats off to Srikanth and best of luck.”
Zii Jia had only lost once in five meetings with the world No. 27 prior to the match in Basel.
The world No. 10’s only other loss to Srikanth came in the 2022 Japan Open.
It was Zii Jia’s second early round exit in Europe after he lost out to Denmark’s world No. 35 Magnus Johannesen in his opening match in the French Open in Paris two weeks ago.
It was also the 25-year-old’s second defeat to an Indian player in two weeks after he went down fighting 22-20, 16-21, 19-21 to 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Lakshya Sen in the All-England last eight.
Meanwhile, Lakshya also exited the tournament after surprisingly losing 17-21, 15-21 to Taiwan’s world No. 34 Lee Chia-hao.
In the men’s doubles, there was better fortunes for Malaysia when newly crowned Orleans Masters champions Choong Hon Jian-Mohd Haikal Nazri continued their good form by storming into the last eight.
Hon Jian-Haikal confidently swept aside Thailand’s Pharanyu Kaosamaang-Worrapol Thongsanga 21-12, 21-17 to set up a rematch of the Orleans tourney final against Indonesia’s Sabar Gutama-Moh Reza.
Mixed doubles pairs Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie also checked into the quarter-finals.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei beat India’s Satish Kumar-Aadya Variyath 21-17, 21-14 while Soon Huat-Shevon had to fight harder to come away with a 21-17, 19-21, 21-11 win over Japan’s Hiroki Nishi-Akari Sato.
The world No. 9 and the world No. 14 independent pairs will next face Thailand’s Supak Jomkoh-Supissara Paewsampran and Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen-Alexandra Boje respectively.
